Text-messaging based coaching programs

Abstract

Technology is directed to an interactive text message based coaching program (“the technology”). A user enrolled in a campaign interacts with a server to obtain guidance on performing a set of tasks of the campaign to achieve a health goal. The user interacts with the server via text messages using a mobile computing device. After the health goal of the user is identified, the server generates text messages having information related to the campaign. The text messages are generated based on the health goal for the user, and are customized for the user. The server sends the text messages to the user in a sequence, wherein a next text message of the sequence sent to the user is based on a response received from the user for a previous text message of the sequence.

I/we claim: 
     
         1 . A computer-implemented method, comprising:
 receiving, by a computing system, a health goal for a user enrolled in a campaign program, the campaign program specifying a set of tasks to be performed by the user to achieve the health goal;   generating, by the computing system and based on the health goal for the user, a plurality of messages having information related to a campaign program, the messages being customized for the user; and   sending, by the computing system, the messages to a mobile computing device of the user in a sequence, at least one of the messages eliciting the user to respond, wherein a next message of the sequence sent to the user is based on a response received from the user for a previous message of the sequence.   
     
     
         2 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein said sending the messages is done by using a messaging service provided by a wireless telecommunications network of the mobile computing device of the user. 
     
     
         3 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 2 , wherein the messaging service provided by the wireless telecommunications network of the mobile computing device of the user is a short messaging service, and wherein the messages are text messages. 
     
     
         4 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein said sending the messages is done by using a social networking application executing at the mobile computing device. 
     
     
         5 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein receiving the health goal includes:
 exchanging, by the computing system, a set of messages with the user for receiving the health goal, the set of messages exchanged with the user via at least one of a messaging service provided by a wireless telecommunications network of the mobile computing device of the user or a social networking application executing at the mobile computing device.   
     
     
         6 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 5 , wherein exchanging the set of messages with the user for receiving a health goal for the user includes:
 sending, by the computer system, a first message of the set to a plurality of users requesting the users to enroll for the campaign program; and   receiving, by the computer system, a plurality of responses from corresponding users via a first set of messages, the first set of messages indicating an enrollment or a non-enrollment of the subset of users for the campaign program.   
     
     
         7 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 5 , wherein exchanging the set of messages with the user for receiving a health goal for the user includes:
 sending, by the computer system, for selection by the user, a plurality of health goals; and   receiving, by the computer system, a user selection of one of the health goals as the health goal.   
     
     
         8 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein the messages include an appointment reminder to remind the user of an appointment with a particular entity in the campaign program. 
     
     
         9 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein the messages are sent to the user on a user-defined schedule. 
     
     
         10 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 9 , wherein the user-defined schedule includes a user-defined day, date, time, an occasion, an occurrence of an event, or frequency. 
     
     
         11 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1  further comprising:
 analyzing the campaign program, including responses received from the user, to generate a first data, the first data including at least one of a response rate, a response speed, a response speed in a given duration, or a drop-off rate. 
 
     
     
         12 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 11  further comprising:
 generating, by the computer system, a report having the first data; and 
 sending, by the computer system, the report to a campaign manager of the campaign program. 
 
     
     
         13 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein sending the messages in a sequence includes identifying the sequence using a decision tree that links the messages of the campaign program defining the sequence for the user. 
     
     
         14 . A computer-implemented method, comprising:
 exchanging, by a server, a first set of text messages with a user for receiving a goal to be achieved by the user in a campaign program, the campaign program including a set of tasks to be performed by the user to achieve the goal, the first set of text messages exchanged between the server and a computing device associated with the user via a wireless telecommunications network of the computing device;   generating, by the server and based on the goal of the user, a second set of text messages having information related to the campaign program, the second set of text messages presenting to the user at least one of information related to the campaign program or a question requesting a response from the user;   sending, by the server, a first text message of the second set of text messages to the user;   receiving a response from the user for the first text message; and   sending, by the server, a second text message of the second set of text messages forming a sequence of text messages, wherein a next text message of the sequence sent to the user is based on a response received from the user for a previous text message of the sequence.   
     
     
         15 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 14 , wherein exchanging a first set of text messages includes:
 exchanging the first set of text messages with a plurality of users, and   receiving a plurality of goals of the corresponding users.   
     
     
         16 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 15 , wherein generating a second set of text messages includes generating the second set of text messages for each of the users and based on the goals of the corresponding users. 
     
     
         17 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 13 , wherein the goal is a health goal or a behavior change goal of the user. 
     
     
         18 . A computer-implemented method, comprising:
 outputting, to a campaign manager at a machine-implemented processing system, a graphical user interface (GUI) for generating a campaign program, the GUI including an interaction component creation tool to generate a plurality of interaction components of a plurality of types, the interaction components configured to store a plurality of messages that present to a plurality of users at least one of information related to the campaign program or questions requesting a response from the users;   generating, by the campaign manager and using the interaction component creation tool, the interaction components, each of the interaction components having a specific message that presents at least one of a specific information item regarding the campaign program or a specific question requesting a response from the users; and   linking, by the campaign manager, the interaction components to form a decision tree, the decision tree identifying a sequence in which the messages of the corresponding interaction components are to be sent to the users, the decision tree identifying, for each of the users, a particular message of the messages to be sent to the corresponding user for a particular response from the corresponding user.   
     
     
         19 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 18 , wherein each of the messages is presented to the users as a text message on a mobile computing device associated with corresponding user. 
     
     
         20 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 19 , wherein the text message is a character string, the character string having a specified maximum length. 
     
     
         21 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 19 , wherein the text message is of a plurality of languages. 
     
     
         22 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 18 , wherein each of the interaction components includes an entry link and an exit link, the entry link specifying a previous interaction component of the interaction components that precedes the corresponding interaction component in the sequence, the exit link specifying a next interaction component of the interaction components which follows the corresponding interaction component in the sequence. 
     
     
         23 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 18 , wherein the types of the interaction component includes a first type of the interaction component that does not require a response from a user of the users and a second type of the interaction component that requires a response from the user. 
     
     
         24 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 23 , wherein the response for the second type of the interaction component specifies a user selection of a plurality of choices presented to the user in a message of an interaction component of the second type. 
     
     
         25 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 24 , wherein the interaction component of the second type has a plurality of exit links, and wherein linking the interaction component includes:
 linking, for each of the choices, a corresponding exit link to a specific interaction component of the interaction components to be sent to the user in response to receiving a reply from the user containing the corresponding choice.   
     
     
         26 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 18 , wherein the types of the interaction component includes an open type of the interaction component that present messages to the users for which the users can either respond or not. 
     
     
         27 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 18 , wherein each of the interaction components includes a scheduling parameter to indicate a schedule for sending the corresponding messages to the corresponding users. 
     
     
         28 . A computer-implemented method, comprising:
 generating, at a machine-implemented processing system, a graphical user interface (GUI) for generating a campaign program, the GUI including a plurality of interaction components of a plurality types, the interaction components configured to store messages that present at least one of information related to the campaign program or questions requesting a response from users participating in the campaign program, wherein the GUI is configured to:
 receive, from a campaign manager at another machine-implemented processing system, the interaction components, each of the interaction components configured to include a specific message that presents at least one of a specific information regarding the campaign program or a specific question requesting a response from the users, 
 receive, by the campaign manager, a decision tree linking the interaction components, the decision tree configured to identify a sequence in which the messages of the corresponding interaction component are sent to the users, the decision tree identifying, for each of the users, a particular message of the messages to be sent to the corresponding user for a particular response from the corresponding user; and 
   producing, by the machine-implemented processing system, a set of source code that, when executed by said another machine implemented processing system, produces the GUI for generating the campaign program.   
     
     
         29 . An apparatus, comprising:
 a processor;   a goal setting module invocable by the processor to exchange a first set of messages with a user for receiving a health goal for the user, the first set of messages exchanged between the computing system and a mobile computing device associated with the user;   a campaign generation module invocable by the processor to generate, based on the health goal for the user, a plurality of messages having information related to a campaign program, the campaign program specifying a set of tasks to be performed by the user to achieve the health goal, the messages being customized for the user; and   a campaign messaging module invocable by the processor to send the messages to the mobile computing device of the user in a sequence, wherein a next message of the sequence sent to the user is based on a response received from the user for a previous message of the sequence.   
     
     
         30 . The apparatus of  claim 29 , wherein the campaign messaging module exchanges the messages with the user via a text messaging service provided by a wireless telecommunications network of the mobile computing device of the user. 
     
     
         31 . The apparatus of  claim 29 , wherein the campaign messaging module exchanges the messages with the user via a social networking application executing at the mobile computing device. 
     
     
         32 . The apparatus of  claim 29  further comprising:
 an analytics module invocable by the processor to analyze the campaign program, including responses received from the user, to generate a first data, the first data including at least one of a response rate, a response speed, a response speed in a given duration, or a drop-off rate. 
 
     
     
         33 . The apparatus of  claim 32  further comprising:
 a report distribution module to
 generate a report having the first data, and 
 send the report to a campaign manager of the campaign program. 
 
 
     
     
         34 . An apparatus comprising:
 a processor;   a graphical user interface (GUI) presentation module invocable by the processor to output, to a campaign manager, a GUI for generating a campaign program, the GUI including a plurality of interaction components of a plurality of types, the interaction components configured to store a plurality of messages that present to a plurality of users at least one of information related to the campaign program or questions requesting a response from the users participating in the campaign program;   an interaction component generation module invocable by the processor to generate the interaction components, each of the interaction components having a specific message that presents at least one of a specific information item regarding the campaign program or a specific question requesting a response from the users; and   a decision tree creation module invocable by the processor to link the interaction components to form a decision tree, the decision tree identifying a sequence in which the messages of the corresponding interaction components are to be sent to the users, the decision tree identifying, for each of the users, a particular message of the messages to be sent to the corresponding user for a particular response from the corresponding user.   
     
     
         35 . The apparatus of  claim 34 , wherein each of the interaction components includes an entry link and an exit link, the entry link specifying a previous interaction component of the interaction components precedes the corresponding interaction component in the sequence, the exit link specifying a next instance of the instances which follows the corresponding instance in the sequence. 
     
     
         36 . The apparatus of  claim 34  further comprising:
 a language translation module invocable by the processor to translate the messages into a plurality of languages.